Archive -
06 - 2008

June 26, 2008 (Newswise) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that the number of Americans with diabetes has grown to 24 million - a surge of more than 3 million people in the past two years.That surge is evident at Temple Universitys School of Podiatric Medicine, where podiatrists have seen a spike in recently diagnosed diabetic patients who have been referred by their primary care physician as part of a heightened awareness of the disease.Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions, and health care providers are becoming more proactive in their approach to care, said Temple podiatrist Kathya Zinszer, who specializes in diabetic wound care. In years past, patients would come to their doctor with chronic foot wounds, and would be so far gone that the only option would be to amputate. Now, thats not the case, thanks to the push for preventative care.Temples approach to preventative care is two fold: at the Foot and Ankle Institute, newly diagnosed diabetics undergo a number of baseline tests including shoe fittings and gait analysis, to determine and correct any problem areas before they develop into chronic ulcers or wounds.In addition, Zinszer and her colleagues stress the need for patients to make foot care a part of their everyday lives. She suggests wearing good, supportive slippers in the house, never going barefoot outdoors and checking inside the shoes to make sure there are no foreign objects that could rub or cut the foot.I tell all my patients to get in the habit of checking their shoes now, because while they may have good feeling in their feet today, in 10 years, they might not, said Zinszer.Our goal is to do everything we can to salvage limbs and help our diabetic patients maintain a good quality of life, she said.

June 26, 2008 (Science Daily) - Adults with type 2 diabetes who eat unhealthy, high-fat meals may experience memory declines immediately afterward, but this can be offset by taking antioxidant vitamins with the meal, according to new research from Baycrest.There is already growing evidence linking diabetes to cognitive complications in humans. Adults with type 2 diabetes are especially vulnerable to acute meal-induced memory deficits after eating unhealthy foods.This latest study, led by Baycrest and published in the July issue of Nutrition Research, suggests that taking high doses of antioxidant vitamins C and E with the meal may help minimize those memory slumps."Our bottom line is that consuming unhealthy meals for those with diabetes can temporarily further worsen already underlying memory problems associated with the disease,"said lead author Michael Herman Chui, who conducted the research as a University of Toronto pathobiology undergraduate in the Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit (KLARU) at Baycrest. "We've shown that antioxidant vitamins can minimize oxidative stress from the meal and reduce those immediate memory deficits."Type 2 diabetes is associated with chronic oxidative stress, a major contributor to cognitive decline and Alzheimer disease. Consuming unhealthy foods can induce this type of stress which is triggered by acute elevations of free radicals -- unstable molecules that can damage tissue, including brain tissue. These destructive molecule reactions typically occur over a one-to-three hour period after food ingestion.Dr. Carol Greenwood, senior author of the study and a nationally recognized expert in how diet impacts brain function, cautioned that relying on antioxidant vitamins at meal time is not a quick fix. "While our study looked at the pill form of antioxidants, we would ultimately want individuals to consume healthier foods high in antioxidants, like fruits and vegetables," said Dr. Greenwood, a KLARU senior scientist at Baycrest.Maintaining a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise, a low fat diet rich in antioxidants, and staying mentally active and socially engaged in a variety of activities, is the best medicine for optimizing cognitive health during the lifespan, she said.In the study, 16 adults (aged 50 years and older) with type 2 diabetes participated in an unblinded trial where they attended three weekly sessions that involved consuming a different test meal. One meal consisted of high fat products -- a danish pastry, cheddar cheese and yogurt with added whipped cream; the second meal consisted of only water consumption; and the third test meal was the high-fat meal plus high doses of vitamins C (1000 mg) and E (800 IU) tablets.Fifteen minutes after starting meal ingestion, participants completed a series of neuropsychological tests lasting 90 minutes that measured their recall abilities for words they had heard and paragraph information they had read. These cognitive skills are associated with the brain's memory centre -- the hippocampus.Researchers found that vitamin supplementation consistently improved recall scores relative to the meal alone. Participants who ate the high fat meal without vitamin supplements showed significantly more forgetfulness of words and paragraph information in immediate and time delay recall tests, relative to those who had the water meal or the meal with antioxidant vitamins. Those on water meal and meal with vitamins showed similar levels in cognitive performance.Dr. Greenwood and medical student M.H. Chui emphasize that their findings require further replication in larger studies with more participants. Future studies will need to look at whether antioxidant vitamins are directly targeting oxidative stress reactions or triggering an independent memory-enhancing ability which is simply masking the detrimental effects.The study was funded by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.